Sequenza Sur, one of the youngest and most outstanding ensembles on the Mexican musical scene, will premiere a piece by a composer from Guanajuato for piano and electroacoustics at the 39th International Cervantino Festival (FIC).
The full program by Sequenza Sur includes works such as Tientos, by composer Javier Álvarez (founder of the group); Violin Phase, by American composer Steve Reich; Y los oros la luz, by Mexican composer Ana Lara; Sequenza IXa, by Italian composer Luciano Berio; and Cuatro patas, by Mexican composer Elías Puc.
With six years of activity, Sequenza Sur was founded by composer Javier Álvarez, with the participation of several members of the Yucatán Symphony Orchestra and faculty from the Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatán (ESAY). The primary aim of this Yucatecan and international group is to perform and promote contemporary repertoire among musicians and audiences in southeastern Mexico.
The ensemble includes performers on flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano, and double bass. This instrumentation allows for flexible combinations to suit a wide range of contemporary works.
Sequenza Sur’s growing repertoire features pieces by both Mexican and international composers, ranging from 20th-century classics to recently composed works written specifically for the ensemble.
Sequenza Sur has performed at some of the most important artistic events in Mexico, such as the International Cervantino Festival, the Merida International Festival, and the International Forum of New Music “Manuel Enríquez.” In 2007, the ensemble debuted at the Puerta de las Américas International Festival, and gave a recital at the Otoño Cultural Festival in Mérida.
Also in 2007, the group toured southeastern Mexican states, returned to the Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato, and premiered works by Gérard Grisey, Paul León Morales, and Orlando Jacinto García. They also performed at the 30th International Forum of New Music “Manuel Enríquez,” presenting pieces by Elías Puc, Ulises Ramírez, and others.
The members of Sequenza Sur are:
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) – 30 min.
Suite from The Soldier’s Tale
Eduardo Rivas (1995– ) – 8 min.
Absent Limb
Elías Puc (1986– ) – 5 min.
Vibrating Shadows
Manuel Enríquez (1926–1994) – 11 min.
Concerto for 8
Javier Álvarez (1956–2023) – 6 min.
Pyramid
World Premiere
Sequenza Sur Ensemble
Manuel López, musical director
Elías Puc, artistic director
César Reyes, clarinet
Julián Padilla, bassoon
Ángel Canul, trumpet
Miguel Antonio, trombone
Carmen Maldonado, percussion
Tim Myall, violin
Charles McGuir, double bass
Julia Arcudia, narrator
The Soldier’s Tale by Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) is one of his most difficult scores to classify. It is recited, played, and danced… yet it is neither an oratorio, nor an opera, nor a ballet. In its original conception, Stravinsky asked for three actors and one dancer, with a modest chamber ensemble consisting of clarinet, bassoon, cornet à pistons (today, trumpet), trombone, percussion, violin, and double bass. In 1917, Stravinsky and the writer Charles Ferdinand Ramuz conceived a piece in the spirit of a traveling little theater, based on the traditional tale The Deserter and the Devil, compiled by Alexander Afanasiev. The premiere of The Soldier’s Tale took place at the Lausanne Theatre on September 28, 1918, under the musical direction of Ernest Ansermet, stage direction by Georges and Ludmila Pitoëff, and set designs by René Auberjonois.
Eduardo Rivas (1995) is a composer, improviser, and interdisciplinary artist from Yucatán. In his own words: I am fascinated by sounds, images, and words. So I dedicate myself to (trying to) gift them my life. His work Extremidad ausente (Absent Limb) is written for vibraphone and electronics, a scoring that produces a complex polyphony of sound layers; it was premiered on February 19, 2025, in Mérida, within the framework of the Festival Mérida Clásica Moderna. The title of the piece refers to the medical concept of phantom limb syndrome.
Born in Mérida, Yucatán, Elías Puc Sánchez (1986) studied at the Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatán, with principal teachers including Javier Álvarez and Rodrigo Sigal, and also studied with Karlheinz Essl, Ken Ueno, Mauricio Valdés, and León Enríquez. A significant portion of his catalog is dedicated to mixed and electroacoustic compositions. He has taken part in various festivals such as the Encuentro Internacional de Música y Artes Sonoras (Brazil 2010), Festival Primavera en La Habana, and Festival Instrumenta Contemporáneo (Oaxaca), among others.
Manuel Enríquez (1926–1994) is remembered as the first relevant Mexican composer to depart from the paths of nationalism while also undertaking systematic explorations of the new musical languages of his time, becoming an indispensable pillar in the construction of musical modernity in Mexico. His Concerto for 8 holds a prominent place in his chamber output; here, with a scoring of violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, and percussion, the composer explores a modus operandi particularly close to him: controlled aleatoricism, which allows performers to decide the order in which the modules set in the score are to be played.
In addition to a catalog of high-level compositions, Javier Álvarez (1956–2023) left behind an intense and fruitful academic career, developed in various institutions in Mexico and abroad. His work Pyramid is characterized by being written for an indeterminate instrumentation, both in identity and in number of instruments to be used: the general indication is “for any number of instruments and electroacoustic sounds”; likewise, the duration is aleatory. Pyramid was premiered in 1996 at the Huddersfield Festival in the United Kingdom.
Juan Arturo Brennan
Sequenza Sur, one of the youngest and most outstanding ensembles on the Mexican musical scene, will premiere a piece by a composer from Guanajuato for piano and electroacoustics at the 39th International Cervantino Festival (FIC).
The full program by Sequenza Sur includes works such as Tientos, by composer Javier Álvarez (founder of the group); Violin Phase, by American composer Steve Reich; Y los oros la luz, by Mexican composer Ana Lara; Sequenza IXa, by Italian composer Luciano Berio; and Cuatro patas, by Mexican composer Elías Puc.
With six years of activity, Sequenza Sur was founded by composer Javier Álvarez, with the participation of several members of the Yucatán Symphony Orchestra and faculty from the Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatán (ESAY). The primary aim of this Yucatecan and international group is to perform and promote contemporary repertoire among musicians and audiences in southeastern Mexico.
The ensemble includes performers on flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano, and double bass. This instrumentation allows for flexible combinations to suit a wide range of contemporary works.
Sequenza Sur’s growing repertoire features pieces by both Mexican and international composers, ranging from 20th-century classics to recently composed works written specifically for the ensemble.
Sequenza Sur has performed at some of the most important artistic events in Mexico, such as the International Cervantino Festival, the Merida International Festival, and the International Forum of New Music “Manuel Enríquez.” In 2007, the ensemble debuted at the Puerta de las Américas International Festival, and gave a recital at the Otoño Cultural Festival in Mérida.
Also in 2007, the group toured southeastern Mexican states, returned to the Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato, and premiered works by Gérard Grisey, Paul León Morales, and Orlando Jacinto García. They also performed at the 30th International Forum of New Music “Manuel Enríquez,” presenting pieces by Elías Puc, Ulises Ramírez, and others.
The members of Sequenza Sur are:
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) – 30 min.
Suite from The Soldier’s Tale
Eduardo Rivas (1995– ) – 8 min.
Absent Limb
Elías Puc (1986– ) – 5 min.
Vibrating Shadows
Manuel Enríquez (1926–1994) – 11 min.
Concerto for 8
Javier Álvarez (1956–2023) – 6 min.
Pyramid
World Premiere
Sequenza Sur Ensemble
Manuel López, musical director
Elías Puc, artistic director
César Reyes, clarinet
Julián Padilla, bassoon
Ángel Canul, trumpet
Miguel Antonio, trombone
Carmen Maldonado, percussion
Tim Myall, violin
Charles McGuir, double bass
Julia Arcudia, narrator
The Soldier’s Tale by Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) is one of his most difficult scores to classify. It is recited, played, and danced… yet it is neither an oratorio, nor an opera, nor a ballet. In its original conception, Stravinsky asked for three actors and one dancer, with a modest chamber ensemble consisting of clarinet, bassoon, cornet à pistons (today, trumpet), trombone, percussion, violin, and double bass. In 1917, Stravinsky and the writer Charles Ferdinand Ramuz conceived a piece in the spirit of a traveling little theater, based on the traditional tale The Deserter and the Devil, compiled by Alexander Afanasiev. The premiere of The Soldier’s Tale took place at the Lausanne Theatre on September 28, 1918, under the musical direction of Ernest Ansermet, stage direction by Georges and Ludmila Pitoëff, and set designs by René Auberjonois.
Eduardo Rivas (1995) is a composer, improviser, and interdisciplinary artist from Yucatán. In his own words: I am fascinated by sounds, images, and words. So I dedicate myself to (trying to) gift them my life. His work Extremidad ausente (Absent Limb) is written for vibraphone and electronics, a scoring that produces a complex polyphony of sound layers; it was premiered on February 19, 2025, in Mérida, within the framework of the Festival Mérida Clásica Moderna. The title of the piece refers to the medical concept of phantom limb syndrome.
Born in Mérida, Yucatán, Elías Puc Sánchez (1986) studied at the Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatán, with principal teachers including Javier Álvarez and Rodrigo Sigal, and also studied with Karlheinz Essl, Ken Ueno, Mauricio Valdés, and León Enríquez. A significant portion of his catalog is dedicated to mixed and electroacoustic compositions. He has taken part in various festivals such as the Encuentro Internacional de Música y Artes Sonoras (Brazil 2010), Festival Primavera en La Habana, and Festival Instrumenta Contemporáneo (Oaxaca), among others.
Manuel Enríquez (1926–1994) is remembered as the first relevant Mexican composer to depart from the paths of nationalism while also undertaking systematic explorations of the new musical languages of his time, becoming an indispensable pillar in the construction of musical modernity in Mexico. His Concerto for 8 holds a prominent place in his chamber output; here, with a scoring of violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, and percussion, the composer explores a modus operandi particularly close to him: controlled aleatoricism, which allows performers to decide the order in which the modules set in the score are to be played.
In addition to a catalog of high-level compositions, Javier Álvarez (1956–2023) left behind an intense and fruitful academic career, developed in various institutions in Mexico and abroad. His work Pyramid is characterized by being written for an indeterminate instrumentation, both in identity and in number of instruments to be used: the general indication is “for any number of instruments and electroacoustic sounds”; likewise, the duration is aleatory. Pyramid was premiered in 1996 at the Huddersfield Festival in the United Kingdom.
Juan Arturo Brennan
